Croats’ support to EU enlargement higher than Union’s average

Croatian citizens are very inclined toward European Union enlargement whereas more than half of EU citizens are against the idea, the latest Eurobarometer results indicate.

Findings of a survey conducted from 7 to 16 November 2015 show that 51% of respondents across the EU are against further enlargement of the EU bloc, while three fifths, that is 60%, of 1,008 Croatian citizens interviewed during this survey support the enlargement. In Romania 62% support enlargement as do Lithuanian citizens, 59%, followed by Spain, Poland and Malta (56%) and finally Bulgaria (50%).

The countries with the highest percentages of those against the EU enlargement include Austria (75%), Germany (73%), Luxembourg (69%), France (64%), The Netherlands (63%) and Belgium (61%).

Croatians, like most other Europeans, or more than 50% believe that the Union should have common policies at the European level.

When it comes to an idea about a single European army, the support in Croatia stands at 63% and the EU average is at 53%.

Croatians are amongst the most optimistic about the future of the EU, with 69% of those 1,008 interviewed Croatians believing in the EU future whereas the EU average was 53%. Irish, Romanian and Polish respondents were more optimistic than the Croatians, while the most pessimistic were respondents among the Greeks, Cypriots and Austrians.

The largest problem facing Croatian citizens, they believe is unemployment followed by the country’s economic situation.

As many as 80% of Croatian consider the nation’s economy to be in a poor shape while 35%of those 1,008 respondents consider Europe’s economic situation to be bad. Croatians are also pessimistic with regard to employment and 86% consider the situation to be bad compared with the EU average of 67%.